William Herschel discovered NGC 4013 = H II-733 = h1041 on 6 Feb 1788 (sweep 810) and recorded "pB, mE, about 4' long and 3/4' br. A pBSN and vF branches near the meridian." JH made two observations and logged on sweep 248 "B; mE; vsvmbM to a * = 10-11m; pos of extension = 62.3° by measure."

George Stoney, LdR's assistant, recorded it on 17 Mar 1849 as "E with a split or opening in the direction of major axis and a star a little following the center." The dark lane was confirmed on 12 Apr 1861: "Brightest part preceding the star and certainly a narrow split going towards preceding end from the star."

400/500mm - 17.5" (3/8/97): moderately bright, fairly large edge-on 5:1 WSW-ENE, 3.5'x0.7'. A mag 12 star is superimposed very close to the actual center and masquerades as a bright stellar nucleus (similar to M108). The galaxy bulges towards center but is only weakly concentrated, fades towards tips. On the DSS the star is superimposed on a thin equatorial dust lane that was not seen. Member of the NGC 4111 group in the UMa cloud.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb